Read that over to yourselves a few times, folks. Let it seep right in. Labour refused to devolve APD, a policy their own Devo Commission’s interim report had recommended, because it was an SNP policy that some major Scottish employers approved of.

This is the same Labour who rejoice when other employers threaten to move out of Scotland if there’s a Yes vote. The same Labour who carefully cater their policies to big-business interests, who did nothing to repeal Margaret Thatcher’s anti-union laws during 13 years in government, and of whom the recently sadly-departed RMT leader Bob Crow – a proper, actual socialist – said:

But there IS a limit to Labour’s love of business. If that business backs an SNP policy, Labour will wreck it. Even if it would have been good for the business AND good for Scotland, Labour explicitly told us today what their priority is – the preservation of the Union, above all else.

Read that quote at the top of the page over and over and over again. Burn it into your brain. You’re going to need to remember it for the next six months. Labour will destroy Scotland to save the Union if that’s what it takes. Never forget, never doubt for a second, whose side they’re on. Because it’s not yours. They’ve just told you so.

If ever there was an example of a political party committing seppuku before the electorate’s eyes then this is surely it. We must surely be witnessing the death throes of a once proud Labour party. How on earth can anyone continue to support a political party such as this whose sole raison d’etre is to oppose everything that the S.N.P. puts forward is beyond me. If the S.N.P. were to put forward the concept that night follows day I have absolutely no doubt that the Labour party in Scotland would oppose that very concept because it was proposed by the S.N.P.!

For those who would of accepted a federal state(home rule),the shenanigans today prove beyond doubt it ain’t happening.Will be painful to watch Labour Party (scottish labour is nae more)defend there new position

I have always been sure that Yes will win the referendum, because I have never feared that the MSM have the power to influence the Scots as much as they used to…

But I am now convinced that along with Yes, we will see the complete destruction of the present Scottish Labour Party.

I honestly think they have/will become so toxic, that no one who is in the party at the present, will ever be voted into political power in Scotland again.

As someone who worked in mental health for a number of years, the one thing a saw repeatedly, was how hatred would destroy a person from the inside out, and how once it took a hold of them, they would be unable to make rational decisions, if it involved the person or people they hated.

As soon as the ‘hated’ person was mentioned they would let fly with their repeatedly rehearsed list of ‘stuff’ that the hated person was guilty of, and they would get very angry if you tried to question if the person could possibly be that bad/evil.

I see this symptom in almost every Scottish Labour Party person and I can also see how the hatred has eaten away at them to the point where they are unable to listen to any reason, that would involve them not expressing the deep seated hatred of the SNP.

They genuinely can’t stop now and what we are seeing is the end game where they end up depressed and washed up, blaming the rest of the world for all their internal pain ‘because they just would not listen to me’

Really, if people don’t get it NOW, then I don’t know what it’ll take to get through to them.

They couldn’t be bothered turning up for their own Bedroom Tax motion, yet they don’t think Scotland should have power over welfare. They would rather the Tories ran roughshod over Scottish welfare, than see the SNP do something with it. They don’t even think Scotland should have its own broadcasting, ferchrissakes.

I’ve always thought the sinking ship metaphor was just that, metaphorical. But I’m starting to get the impression that these people are so blinded by hate that if this was an actual sinking ship, they would stay behind and plug the gaping tear in the hull rather than follow the SNP to the lifeboats.

I tend to think that in politics, the results of votes are generally determined by one side LOSING, rather than the other side winning. You can be the most outstanding candidate for MP ever, but people won’t vote you in unless they’ve had enough of the current guy. You can be the best government-in-waiting ever, but you won’t win unless the public has decided they’re sick of the incumbents. Similarly, in a referendum about changing something, the proponents of the change can make the best arguments ever, but they’ll only win if people decide they’re sick of the status quo.

So it is with the independence referendum. We can make the best case ever, but people won’t vote for it unless they’ve first decided they’ve had enough with the union. I think today, Labour officially lost the referendum for the No side. There’s just something in the media reaction that suggests the tide is finally turning. Hayley Millar’s interview with Jim Murphy yesterday, where she was clearly in no mood for his pish. John McKay telling Lambo she was being interviewed to talk about Labour’s proposals when she started bleating about what the SNP would do. Gordon Brewer absolutely ripping Lambo to shreds. The Daily Record conspicuously leaving the Devo Nano proposals off the front page today. Even Severin’s article there.

I think we’re going to see more and more people saying “fuck this for a game of sodjers”, and it’s all thanks to Labour. Cheers, Lambo!

It’s as if they’ve been wearing The One Ring for too long, or have been drinking untreated water with a high content of heavy metals, it’s blinding their judgement.

If I was to make business decisions at work based on the same measure of obsessive blind hatred for AS being demonstrated by Labour, me and the cats would be out on the street.

On a related note, Gordon Brewer gave JoLa a proper grilling tonight on NN Scotland, well worth a watch. My favourite bit was his look of incredulity at her trying to explain their wacky income tax idea.

Re: spite, the pound is failing against the euro again. I explained this to a group of auld retired brits resident here in Spain. Market uncertainty over currency union is the reason.

A slide towards parity is caused by spiteful mendacious government trying to bully Scotland into submission. These people decent enough as they are, only watch the BBC for news, and don’t speak Spanish. Negative equity on their homes bought pre-crash of 07. Most need to go back to the UK, but cannae sell. Cannae afford heating in what has been a lang cauld wet winter in all of España.

Pensions being chopped due to a collapsing pound. We should get the message out that millions of UK senior citizens abroad are going to suffer financially because of Osborne’s idiotic big swingin’ dick circus.

as i said previously, now that osborne has stated no CU, as the yes vote grows, it isnt salmond or osborne or anyone in the uk who will decide the future of the GBP…………..it is the speculators on the money markets

osborne et all avoided for months saying anything about a CU, sending up non entities(see carwen jones) to rubbish the idea. In an effort to stem the rise of the Yes vote(it didnt work btw) he has now played that card, it is no longer a bargaining chip on the table and he will face the consequences if and when the yes vote continues to rise in the polls. a high stakes game indeed, there may not be a GBP left to form a CU by the time the referendum actually arrives

@Schrodingerscat. I concur. Yet lobbying from this large group of ordinary retired people is still significant. The reasons why is illuminating. Nae skin aff my Nariz. I’m personally very wealthy with no debts/mortgage etc. My portfolio is in Euroland.

Which I consider to be safe and strong.In due course I hope Scotland signs up.

Incidentally, I’ve got your back on the Guardian every night. A couple of years now. Keep it up, as the Actress said to the Bishop….Cheers Bud.

Yes, hatred and even more so, jealousy. After all, the people of Scotland are pretty happy with the way the current SG are doing their job and what made them vote them in in the first place and then with a clear majority?
Labour no more!

It also reminds me of a poem I heard along time ago it went something like this mourn not the dead but mourn the mild and meek who knowing all the worlds wrongs yet dare not speak as I say it was a long time ago so may not be quite right vote yes

Keep up the good work Stuart as someone wrote shout out against injustice shout out loud your head it may be bloodied but unbowed wear your scars like medals you won them in a noble cause go on yer selfe

I just don’t know who’s going to understand all this. It’s just way too hard to even bother. There’s going to be more tax-raising powers but no tax-reducing powers. Eh?, How is that good for me? It’s just such a hard sell (echo JoLa’s useless selling on NNS).

On the other hand, the prospect of independence seems clear and advantageous.

O/T, I was out canvassing last night with Radical Independence. Lots of people not in, most people we spoke to were DKs. But one thing I noticed. The 2 No’s were just so negative and defensive, one just hated AS. But the lady we spoke to who was a solid Yes, was just so upbeat and excited, as, she said, were her husband, 2 sons and daughter. Ex-Labour voters btw. 🙂

In the last 10 days, I think we can see a game changing moment happen. The Tories had their conference. In an empty hall, they basically let it be known that Scotland will get nothing …and yet, Cameron proposes new powers.
Labour have launched their version of a white paper …and that is what it is, because it contains nothing! It is an empty document.

So, forgetting the Libs (because they are nothing), what do we have. We have Scotland’s 21st Century version of ‘Toom Tabard’ …empty suit.

This is what we need to begin telling people; that the Tories and Labour have spoken, and they are giving us nothing in the event of a ‘No’ vote. Hee-Haw!
When discussing with undecided or ‘No’ folk, just ask one simple question.

‘Name on power that Scotland will receive in the event of a ‘No’ vote?’

The key page on Labour’s ‘White Paper’ (laugh) is definitely on page 4 (as highlighted by the Rev on ‘What you can’t have’). I’ve printed it off, and I would suggest everybody else does the same. Keep it on you, and when somebody argues …thrust it in their face.

I do wish BBC Scotland would stop bootin the shit out of the Bannockburn events planned for June.

They are constantly questioning the ticket sales etc..

I will be going to Bannockburn in June with family and friends. I haven’t booked anything yet, and I am sure there are thousands of people like myself who have not yet contacted the booking office, so we wont show up on any figures yet.

For some reason BBC Scotland want the Bannockburn event to fail and they want the British Armed Forces event, (taking place at the same time), to succeed.

I will crawl on my hands and knees if I have to. We will be at Bannockburn on Sat 28th June.

Don’t let these bastards at BBC Scotland run your country into the ground.

Johan Davidson herself said “We don’t want to have a tax regime that would be competitive with the rest of the UK” Why not? Competition implies somebody benefits by winning. They have demonstrated repeatedly that they are happy to crawl into bed with the party that definitely does not have Scotland’s best interests at heart, and whether it be at council level or up in Holyrood, they will even vote against their own proposals simply to get one over the SNP.

In the words of Johann Davidson, “I am astonished” that she would use such things for political gain. Their hatred of the SNP is exposed for all to see, yet sadly, there are still many who refuse to see, or is it that they expect recompense for their loyalty?

This former English teacher seems to have a similar grasp of English as she does of politics, when you hear her unscripted buffoonery. How the heck she ever got the job, I am at odds to fathom. Her and her ilk will have a lot of answers to find come the 19th of September if the current trends continue. Just imagine, no more shambolic stumbling through her flash cards, which she appears to have dropped on the floor, and hopefully no more of this waggy finger nonsense. (Which, TBH if she did that in front of me and a lot of folk I know, would have earned her a broken finger or some bite marks) Maybe, just maybe, she will see that her country is worth the effort to work FOR?? I am not holding my breath on that one.
……..

Six months and one week later, in the halls of Westminster, behind closed doors;

(Boris Karloff voice)
But Marthter, I did what you commanded. I obtained the body parts, and voted against any EthNP policies!! Please do not say I have failed you. Johan will be good Marthter…

I had thought ok these people passionately believe in the union and will argue to preserve it but FFS this is the true face they are the bully’s wee pal who would spite their own contrymen for their own ends..despicable. The sad thing is that the imperialists don’t give a hairy fuck about them and are using them, I know they don’t care about me but they are deluded.

Surely after JoLa’s car crash interviews last night and this blatant downing of Scotland someone in the parliamentary SLab will grow a backbone and say enoughs enough

Six months to go? Saw a wee snippet of the Yes Scotland photo-opp at some school gym yesterday, all the happy faces waving various Yes-group placards…and nae SSP.

Again.

Last night we had the Ayrshire Branch meeting in Foresters’ Hall. 18 present, despite another Yes event being held locally.

There’s no knowing how many real socialists are going along with the marginalisation of the SSP by biting their lips, fingers crossed behind their backs.

But time is running out – the genuine DKs on the streets deserve to hear what the SSP has to say, and they’re not going to get it via MSM debates, and they won’t get it via a ‘Yes’ newspaper which is an SNP publication. Hell, they won’t, it seems, even get it via ‘official’ Yes events.

So, we need everyone who believes that the SSP has real socialist alternatives to get involved and help us give the message to people face-to-face.

Labour have stated many times that they will not support any policy of the SNP (Willie Bains famous text).

That is until an election or by-election then they go go for “convergence” in their leaflets – promise everything the SNP has as policy (e.g.rates freeze) this is to stop core voters switching – if they see no difference between the parties they will stick with Labour.

However ALL the groups which support independence(Greens / Radical ind / Labour for Ind. / SNP / Scottish Socialists), have a clear message, if you listen – the people come first.

With Labour – The party comes first.

Fear has been a core weapon of Labour for many years “You think it’s bad now…what would it be like without us”
In reality they like bad news to boost their chances in elections. They were therefore the ideal choice to run better together for the union. An ideal “union” Tory money and Labour fear and smear.

APD is a clear example of crushing positive prospects that actually benefits Scotland because it may harm Labour.

A once great party now an empty shell.

I cannot think of any better reason to vote YES than the potential for the next generation. No more assisted passages to Australia and New Zealand. No more having to move to England, Canada, America etc.

Ian
I prefer working with the SSP and Labour for independence. They focus on the wider YES campaign much better. Unfortuately you are correct and some in my own party often fail to embrace the concept of Independence first and party policy later.

In some areas it is hard to tell who is in which (if any) party). In other groups they try to run it as they do a normal election.

They are party before people and have completely lost their way. After yesterday’s devo+ debacle and the article ATL there should be absolutely no doubt left in anyone’s mind. Now will the real Labour supporters please stand up? Labour supporters for the people that is. Labour supporters who haven’t forgotten what Labour was for. I know you are out there.

So glad I didn’t read this before I went to bed last night – I wouldn’t have been able to sleep for anger at this insult to the people of Scotland!

We deserve better than this! People need to wake up and realise that the only way is YES.

Labour in Scotland is in its death throes and are so toxic that they will need a change of name and a complete clearout of anyone associated with the present group, if any genuine people like Allan Grogan of Labour for Independence, are to stand any chance of steering Labour back to it’s traditional socialist values.

Labour now becoming a toxic brand in Scotland surely. Time for the decent members to get behind Labour for Independence and get the framework for a new party established for after the Yes Vote. Back out with Yes papers this morning, roll on issue 3.

I see a pattern developing where the yes campaign suggest or support that which might benefit Scotland and rUk but which they really aren’t bothered about/ interested in then keep dropping it in the media until the No campaign become so apoplectic that they outright reject it leaving the electorate with little option but to vote Yes for the change they want.

APD
Second Question
The Pound

I think that the game is afoot and No are being played with fine precision.

It’s the same mentality of spite which saw Unionists in the audience at last night’s EBC debate cheering and whooping at the notion that companies would leave Scotland and oil would run out in 40 years (that’s next Friday in the Unionist calendar) if Scotland has the termerity to vote to run its own affairs.

As for Labour, it is a party, in the form of its egregious branch secretary Lamont, reduced to drooling, meaningless mantras around ‘flexibility’, ‘broad shoulders’, ‘pooling risk’ etc., to be mindlessly repeated in the absence of anything resembling ideas. Labour’s sole reason for existing is to preserve the Union. When the Union goes later this year, by God they should go with it.

Absolutely no surprise to read this spiteful reaction from Labour, they’ve been at it ever since SNP became the government – minimum unit alcohol pricing, windfall tax on supermarkets, etc. Their idea of opposition is complete hatred of anything SNP proposes instead of constructively arguing for improvements to bills. Very immature behavior.
But we’re getting this same treatment from all the unionist parties especially with their childish opposition to currency union, common travel area, etc.

Peter Mirtitsch:
She would get her job teaching English in Glasgow because of her Labour connections rather her ability, Council Education departments are historically corrupt, with more space I could give plenty of examples.

I’ve only got a wee image of that Yes picture, so I can’t be sure, but I think it’s only the Yes groups – Farming for Indy, RIC etc that are represented, and not the political parties – so maybe you aren’t being discriminated against.

Incidentally, anyone else notice that Lamont’s customary drool of ‘we need to have a debate’ moved on in her interviews yesterday to ‘we need to have a conversation’ before culminating in ‘we need to have a dialogue’?

What next? We need to have a colloquy? We need to have a Vulcan mind-meld? We need to be strapped into a chair with our eyelids pulled back to stare at the word ‘flexibility’ for days on end?

I was speaking with a husband and wife couple of Labour supporters yesterday. They reeled off a list of devo promises, (not by any means just Labour promises either), as reasons for voting NO. After they paused for breath I said, “Sae ye’ll bi votin fir Devolution oan the referendum paper then”? They replied, almost in unison, “Aye”, As I walked off I replied – “Funny that ‘cos there’s nae devo question oan the paper noo”.

Johann Lamont was anointed by Gordon Brown because she was so bad. Bendy Wendy went native and threw down the gauntlet to the SNP (bring it on), when the Brown Bottler hadn’t the guts to take a decision on his own and couldn’t do what most junior managers do, day-in and day-out, take decisions by asking opinions and then by internal consensus. The Grey man was anointed because he was so bloody grey and insipid. Finally Lamont was chosen because she was so goddam awful.

All of them represented no challenge to Gordon’s control freakery style of unmanagement.

Gordon also appointed Baroness Ashcroft, yes her who aided Putin in his bid to undermine Ukraine. She had no political experience before being appointed to the second highest political post in the EU. Before that she was head of Oxfam.

Ashcroft is so useless as she is known as Ashtray; as in “on a motorbike.”

Ashcroft was also in the CND and I believe could not have her appointment to the EU confirmed as MI 5/6 wouldn’t give her a clean security vet.

Ashcroft was chosen to be so useless, like all other of Gordon’s appointees, useless and of no danger to Gordon.

You only have to listen to Alastair Darling’s waffle to perceive the disinformation and hatred he espouses.

Anything positive or factual in favour of autonomy, argument he cannot answer, he considers “unpalatable.”

He just won’t accept it.

The SNP won by a landslide, democratically elected, we say.

“No, there are 400,000 conservative voters in Scotland” he avers. “What about them?”

There might well be that many Tory voters scattered across Scotland, groups huddled in St Boswells playing cricket as their way of keeping warm, or Morningside in Edinburgh, or Bearsden, and elsewhere, but what is Darling trying to prove?

The Labour party, Darling included, named the SNP, “tartan tories.”

Is Darling asking us to believe not a single Tory voted for the SNP?

Is he claiming the movement for greater powers is not a grass roots movement, the SNP membership consisting of a wide variety of beliefs and attitudes?

The labour mafia in Scotland are losing their grip and like a drowning man will grasp at a straw. Do you notice that not one of their Westminster mps will do questions and answers after their speeches. We need to start exposing these individuals for what they are . Lets start with the man that frichtens auld people about their pensions.£200,000 for expenses in 2012-13 at Westminster. How many times did he attend?£10,000 per week non taxable expenses out of his charity which in some peoples opinion is a tax scam. Sell the gold reserves at half price. Do away with the 10p tax level. Rob the pension pot to the tune of £100 billion. Sign the Hinckley point deal with EDF the company that his brother works for. Introduce Atos. Draw up the blue print for the welfare reforms including the bedroom tax. He gets an 11% pay rise for not going to his work and many many more . The time has come my friends to expose these fraudulent people who have their noses in the trough at Westminster and will do and say anything to keep it in it. These people are fighting for their own well being not those of their constituents. Friends we are only going to get one bite at this ripe and inviting cherry it is our responsibility to use every tool at our disposal to achieve our goal. Get the kid gloves and remember what type of people we are dealing with.

Ms Lamont is not the sharpest tack in the in the sewing box when it comes to financial matters, that’s obvious for all to see.

She is said to be the heid yin in all of Scotland to do with labour but has kept a low profile in all matters pertinent to Scotland, Falkirk selection scandal , Grangemouth refinery crisis. She is way out of her depth in even the everyday topics the emerge in the news.

She has to endure the experience of the conference this week with many mocking her behind her back and has nowhere to hide.

A patsy, easily taken advantage of, cheated, blamed, or ridiculed and specifically set up to fill the gap and to be demoted post 19th September.

Robert Kerr:
1) It used to be possible to get an MA at Glasgow with a reasonable performance in your main subjects and a collection of passes in minor subjects which really only needed you to submit the required number of essays. That was certainly the case in her era but of course would have been more testing if she did an Honours degree.
2) The Postgrad diploma course at Jordanhill has been recognised as easy or difficult depending on the demands for new teachers i.e. shortage or surplus respectively. For Secondary teachers this would depend on the subject area demand.
3) The probationer system was introduced more recently to cope with a surplus of newly qualified teachers when the colleges were churning them out regardless of demand or bad planning on needs although to be fair the four year duration of the B.Ed. course makes prediction of demand more difficult.
She was also active in the EIS which is a bonus ball if you want employment by a Labour council.
Just watched last night’s NN where she was hopeless and made Brewer look like a proper interviewer although I suspect he was just baffled.

Hardly a surprise given the wing nuts involved in this document. There is something rotten at the core of Labour and it has been rotten for some time. The smell of corruption in the air is rank and repellent.

Good of them to articulate it though as it is another means by which to get the message out that what they do is not in the interests of Scotland but purely born of party politics and petty revenge.

I think this document emanated from the London Labour party and that the Scottish labour party are a front for them and can make no decisions on their own.
I watched NN Scotland and J Lamont was out of her depth and was unable to go into detail due to her inability to talk finance taxation etc

I know people are justifiably angry at SLAB, but the truth is we need to win a significant number of their voters and supporters over to independence. Saying things like the Labour Party is dead, and toxic, is not the way to win them over. A real Scottish Labour Party would be genuine asset in an independent Scotland.

I am just listening to scottish question time down at westminster, Scotland and our government are of course being trashed by a muiltude of Scottish labour & libdem MP’s which is being warmly welcomed by Alistair Carmichael and David Mundel.

Yes Inverclyde has 3 public meetings scheduled for undecided voters with 3 speakers at each. 24th march includes John McAllion SSP, 28th April includes Colin Fox SSP and 9th June includes Jim Bollan SSP. We also have speakers from Green, WFI, LFI and YES.

Every time there is a public meeting at least 40% are converted to Yes. The polls reflect this. It may only be 50 people at a meeting. However multiply that by the meetings every week and in different towns across Scotland. Drip by drip Yes are taking voters with them. Guess what the No campaign don’t know what to do. They are relying on the biased MSM but have underestimated people power. The games over for them now!

I have attempted on many occasions to engage BT supporters on line to give me positivity on remaining in the union. I’ve been banned on two sites and another two for suggesting that when the unpredictable and voloitile oil price falls it will be the same for an independent Scotland as it would be for the UK and for asking the self same question – they will not engage.

I implore any BT supporter reading this to give me 3 good and valid resasons to support the continuation of the Union.

SLP. Where have you founding principals gone? Where is the social justice that was once your remit? Where the ‘home rule’ for Scotland?

Your present way is totally lost and you will remain that way until you renage from becoming a second class Tory party! Remember your roots – you are not part of the class system that abounds in SW1A 0AA.

Do you even know who Keir Hardie was and what he stood for? You are not even a shadow of your historic party and its principals! In bed with the Tories, what a shambles of the common peoples party of the past, ashamed is what you should feel! It looks like, to me, there is a present day ‘Bought and sold for ( —-) gold’ going on! Wake up and smell the Laphoig before you commit us to the a suicidal slide into the austere abyss of Westminster!

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